Stop
by Prosperina
Summary: How can Usagi stop something she can't see, doesn't know, and isn't there for?


_ **Disclaimer:** Stop is copyrighted by Prosperina. Intellectual property may not be duplicated or redistributed in any way or form without the permission of author. Characters depicted in said story are completely fictional, and, unless noted otherwise, property of Naoko Takeuchi. No copyright infringement intended._

  
  
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S T O P

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by Prosperina 

  
  
…And just like that, one day she woke up to find the world had stopped. Oh, it wasn't the Great Sleep, that wasn't prophesized to occur for another eighty-six years. Usagi faltered as she realized what was to come, and so magnified. As it was she still had her Senshi and Mamoru, but how would she survive a millennium of complete solitude? 

"It's okay, Usa," Mamoru said as he wrapped his arms around from behind her. 

Usagi flinched. "Sorry," she said, sinking back into his embrace. "It's still hard to get used to this…" she gestured around her, but Mamoru didn't look at what she was pointing to. He'd already seen it a thousand times. "This nothingness," she concluded. "Do you think Mercury has found something yet?" 

Mamoru gazed at her silently and shook his head. There were times now—like this—that he was painfully aware that he was, in fact, one of the blessed few who were witnessing a miracle. Except he didn't feel so fortunate. He felt as though there was something he had lost and would never get back. He felt like something important had disappeared, and, in the time that he didn't realize it, something new had slipped into its place. 

Mamoru pushed the persisting thoughts out of his mind as his soul searched for its other. '_Usagi_', it whispered, softly and sadly, but she did not answer. 

He was the only one left allowed to call her that, Usagi, but when he spoke her name he could feel her discomfort. But until she asked him to stop, he knew he would continue to call her Usagi because of the same reasons she wished him not to. It gave him a connection to a memory, a time before he became Endymion, before she became Serenity, and before this motionless white city they stood before. 

"Serenity, Endymion," Jupiter said as she entered the silent room. It felt strangely isolated and ethereal, the billowing white curtains framing the two figures. 

"Yes, Jupiter?" 

"We request your presence in the Throne Room." 

Endymion frowned. "The Thro—" 

"It's necessary, Endymion," Jupiter said firmly. 

As they walked down the long hallway devoid of the life it normally held, Mamoru clasped Serenity's hand in his, and wondered why he felt like the information to be delivered would not be significant in the long run. What was important were all the things they'd already left behind. 

Both the Inner and Outer Senshi were already present when they arrived, but Serenity only looked for who was not there. "Pluto has not yet arrived?" She asked, concern marring her forehead. 

Mercury cleared her throat. "Actually, that is the reason I've asked you here. As you all know, we have hoped that Pluto could explain this… predicament," she said delicately, "that we are facing, when she arrived. It's been a week since Serenity sent the call, but something has detained her. I think I may have found the explanation for this." 

"Pluto warned me of this a few years earlier," Uranus said suddenly. There were murmurs amongst them as she made her statement. Why hadn't she told them earlier, why hadn't she warned them? "She didn't tell me that… that the thing out there would happen. Pluto only said that there would come a time in the near future that we wouldn't be able to reach her, and she wouldn't be able to reach us," Uranus paused, and brought something forward from her sub-space pocket. "And then she gave me this." 

The object was small and odd-shaped, almost a key and almost something they could nearly recognize. 

"I gave this to Mercury a few days ago, but we didn't tell anyone in case that it was nothing," Uranus said. 

Serenity raised her eyes to Mercury's, dread filling her irises. "What does this mean?" 

"The object Pluto gave to Uranus is a key. It's not _the_ Time Key," Mercury adding quickly, "but it is _a_ key. Normally it is difficult to find the Time Gates on your own blindly, and Serenity, you even said that you have been having some trouble this last week. This key doesn't open the Gates, but it does help you find your way there. And," Mercury hesitated. 

"You went." Serenity stated. Mercury nodded. "Tell me, Mercury," she said slowly. "What did you see at the Time Gates?" 

"Pluto wasn't there. The Gates were unlocked." 

Three days passed before the Senshi accepted that Pluto would not be coming. Serenity was watching the white city from the window again, but this time Endymion—no, Mamoru—simply watched her from a few feet away. 

"Something's wrong," Serenity whispered, to the wind or to him, Mamoru wasn't quite sure. "And not just that our people have been frozen and can not be roused, but something else. Pluto would never leave the Gates unsafe or unattended. And she would never leave them unlocked." The breeze rustled her hair but amazingly the silence carried on. Serenity shook her head. "Something is wrong. We need to find her." 

Mamoru shook his head sharply. "_No_. That's isn't the answer. You heard Uranus, Pluto was not unprepared. Pluto gave Uranus the key. Pluto warned her. Pluto _knew_." 

Serenity exhaled. "That's what I'm afraid of." 

"You think that Pluto has something to do with the Plague?" 

"No," she said. Mamoru couldn't see her face, but her voice wavered. He willed her to turn around, but she kept staring out the window and into a pale sky. "I'm afraid that something worse has happened… or going to happen…" Serenity's hand came down hard against the windowsill in a rare burst of frustration. "And I just don't know what or which or when!" 

In two steps, Mamoru crossed the room and cradled the fragile Serenity against his chest. "Shh," he whispered. "It'll work out." 

Serenity broke from the enclosure of his arms. "No, it won't just happen like that, we need to do something. _Now_." 

"Venus, can you go through what we have? Starting from April." 

Venus blinked in surprise at Neo-Queen Serenity. The Senshi had been gathered in the Meeting Room for a little over an hour, awaiting instructions. They'd expected that, but none had expected the crisp orders that left Serenity's lips. Times like that, Venus thought about their old life in Old Tokyo, and before they realized to reach the ultimate Utopia they would all need to for a while strip themselves of their personas. She wondered if any of the others did the same. 

"Starting from the ball." Venus said. 

"April 12: Anniversary of Serenity and Endymion's coming into power. Celebrations started at 6:30PM. Guards reported that a suspicious character with no invitation or DNA identification attempted to enter the Crystal Palace and was rather agitated when refused entry. 

"April 13: Pluto sends the message, 'Good luck, wishing love and happiness. Strive for all you can be, the world is never as it seems…'" 

Her audience one, eyebrows furrowed in thought, Venus paused and stared at the print out in her hand. What did Pluto mean? Did she see this at the Gates, or did it take her by surprise as much as it did them? Try as she might, Venus could not think of a possible explanation, nor could she recall any hesitancy in Pluto's disposition and expression the night before the ball honoring their Queen and King. It had been too risky to leave the Gates on that night, but she had spoken with all of them earlier… Was there a hidden meaning in her words that they'd all missed? No, the fact remained that Pluto would never leave the Gates unattended. She, of all people, would not forsake duty without a very important reason. 

"Continue." 

"April 22: Two men were discovered murdered in their home in an outer suburb of Crystal Tokyo—the first murder in over eleven years. 

"May 1: The perpetrator caught, and institutionalized because of mental disabilities. 

"May 4: He escaped. 

"May 6: First rumors start circulating about a woman in an almost comatose state, not breathing, yet still alive. 

"May 13: Reports start coming in about people in similar states to the first woman, and within 48 hours the city has fallen asleep. On earth, we are the last ones standing," Venus finished. 

"Serenity," Mars said, "have you considered the idea that this may be the Great Sleep?" 

"The prophecy states that we will have one hundred years of peace—" 

"You know that time is of no value in matters of destiny." 

"It's not time, Mars," Serenity denied, placing a pale hand on the arm of one of her dearest friends. "The Great Sleep is coming, I can feel it, but not yet. Where is Chibi-Usa?" Serenity's voice wavered at the name of her future daughter, but she swallowed any unwanted emotion and forged on. "The prophecy speaks of a child who will grow to lead the world after the Great Sleep, but she hasn't yet arrived." 

Mars's face was laced with frustration, but softened when she caught sight of Serenity's eyes. They held a hidden depth of secrets she had failed to see before, of fear… of desperation… of an unconscious need to regain what she had already lost… '_Oh, Serenity_,' Mars sighed with resignation, because she could feel the coming too, as could all of them, and it was close. Almost as close as the lesson that child would need to learn. '_Serenity, don't you realize that the child has been long born from within you?_' 

One look into Serenity's pure blue eyes told her that she didn't. 

"Time is running out, Usagi," Mars said, lowering her gaze to the shiny white floors. 

Serenity visibly flinched, but did not respond. 

"Your highness," Saturn spoke quietly, and the room silenced to hear her. "Mars is correct. Do not worry about the man who escaped or the two murders. It is of no significance in the long run. He is not part of the big picture." 

"Then what is?" Serenity whispered. 

And then Saturn became Hotaru; her violet eyes stared at her Queen, as if willing her to understand. She looked out of place, a tiny girl amongst fukus and formalities of the Meeting Room. Then, almost as if it were against their will, the other Senshi followed suit, their fukus dissolving to leave teenagers from Old Tokyo. From another time, and another place. 

"Serenity," Michiru said, a slight breeze tousling her hair despite the closed windows in the room. "Destiny requires you to be strong." 

Serenity realized that only she and Endymion were left, but even then Endymion's suit of armor was fading, like it often did if she looked closely. Lately she hadn't been. She turned her gaze down to length of her dress and found that the whites were still clear and intense. 

"Usako, I need to speak with you," Mamoru now said, and when she turned to face him she tasted bitterness rising in the throat. Why did they insist on calling her that, when she proved herself better? Was she never to escape that child's name that they refused to forget? Would she never be good enough for the people, even now as Serenity, their Queen? 

"Not now!" She said, pulling her hand away from his. "There are people out their dying, our _people_ are dying; this isn't the time—" 

"Why can't you see that there is no other time!" Mamoru bit out in frustration. 

"And why can any of you see that this is all I am! We have built our Utopia, I am finally someone I can truly be proud of, and it's all here in this Crystal Palace, but none of that will ever be good enough for you!" 

They both breathed heavily from the emotional outbursts repressed for so long, and Mamoru almost glared at her in search of a woman he knew still was somewhere beneath. "It's cold, _Serenity_," he said quietly. "And the crystals are powered by your heart. How could you forget that so easily?" 

Serenity felt the beginnings of tears forming in the corners of her eyes, and then the icy cold stinging of immobility tumbled down on all of them. Serenity froze for a second, but then started to find a way out of the liquid maze falling, the chilling waters that threatened to bring upon the end of the world. 

She could not let that happen. 

"Stop! Stop!" 

When she broke free, Usagi remained. 

And in the midst of a cold and silent room, she became aware that it was already too late. 

Usagi felt smaller, somehow, like she'd shed a piece of herself and now took up less space in the world, despite the fact she was physically unchanged. Inside, she felt like she'd lived a millennium and died of the experiences. 

She ran her fingers along the surface of the quartz that encompassed the figure of her love, closed her eyes and pretended that it was his skin she was touching. It'd been a long time since that had happened. 

Usagi looked around her at the people of her childhood, trapped by the crystals she had been unable to break. Stopping in front of each one, she wished them strength, and hope, and love. Then she returned to Mamoru, and stared at the reflection of herself in the glass, imagining that she was lying there beside him.

  
  
FINIS.   
Stop [stand alone] 


End file.
